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TO WILLIAM GODWIN, ESQ. 79
out the tldrd cardinal virtue—purity of heart
—he lacks the true consecration.
Even the
former virtues cannot be complete without
the last. The mind cannot live in perfect
purity and clearness unless the heart be
purified from selfish desires;—the delusive
phantom of selfishness will always appear
near the highest moral aims, and confiise and
darken the view.
In misfortune we can
maintain no true patience and tranquillity,
unless the pure heart, free from self-seeking,
suppresses all immoderate demands for outward
enjoyments, and, in pure love of that
for which we suffer, is peaceful and happy.
We cannot in the pressure of danger stand
perfectly unshaken, nor meet it with unbroken
fortitude, unless the pure heart, which
desires nothing for itself, but everything for
a truly moral aim, is prepared for every
sacrifice and deprivation. We cannot manifest
perfect temperance and equanimity if